greensky395 wrote:I say warsh comes from balmor all the way. been livin in the city my whole life an always saying warsh wuder warshington, balmor or baldimore to pronouce it correctly.

Don't forget the old, eponymous book: Bawlamer: An Informal Guide to a Livelier Baltimore. It's now out of print, but available in some local libraries, including (of course!) the Enoch Pratt Free Library. (Sorry, but you'll have to search for yourself. The catalog page wouldn't come up when I pasted the link.)

Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." -- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Here in the New Orleans area the letter R is a confusing one. Many of the older NO people will "put erl in mah caw after Ah warsh it, as soon as Ahm off the terlet." Roughly translated, that means "I will put oil in my car after I wash it, after I'm done using the toilet." One of my good friends managed to put two R's into a word that has none. ".... warsh my verginer" in a hilarious reference to feminine hygiene.

And a sub-category of New Orleans is the "parish accent" which is instantly identifiable to N.O. residents. St. Bernard Parish (out of hundreds of parishes [counties] in LA, only one is called "Da Parish") is right next to Orleans parish, and is notorious for dropping the R. Walmawt, caw, groceries from the staw, whatEVA. A Po-Boy taste betta than just a regula ham sammich.

You get the idea. What's real unique about N.O. is that it's not just a regional dialect, but there are noticeable differences from your neighbors that live literally 15 minutes away. St. "Banawd", the West Bank, Kenna (Kenner), the Noath Shaw (North Shore) all very different.

Discuss amongst yaselfs.

Due to the laws of Physics, it's possible for Chuck Norris to roundhouse kick you yesterday.

Hi, new here. I have been a truck driver for some time and can often pick out dialects. Warsh for the most part shows up in people that were raised or influenced by those raised in the Ohio River Valley. My grandfather (from Terre Haute-pronounced by the 'natives' is Tar Hote...with an a like in father and a long o, often the Tar part is muffled or grunted..lol) had little oddities found in others from that area...it is mostly in southern Indiana and southern Illinois..which may I add has no s (sound) at the end... wash is warsh, cement is SEEment, and concrete is CORNcreet...among others. My grandpa grew up on the Wabash, pronounced by him as WAHbash.
Something I never figured out, as a truck driver, why is Des Plaines pronounced as spelled but Des Moines is just D'moine?

--Ohh, and to add....Warsh in D.C is pronounced slightly different from those around Indiana versus Texas versus the greater DC area...to include those around Balmer (Baltimore). To some it is warsh as in are, others worsh as in wore (clothing-past tense of wear), and still others woursh with the short double o sound...and mini variants in each area.

--I also thank the discussion of how to pronounce Puyallup...I always wondered when I got up into that area....now I know. I used to pronounce it like chop suey/soowee here pig pig...with heavy emphasis on the first syllable...now I know better. There are a lot of the indian town words up there that baffle me. But, we in Michigan have the same problem here...out of towners not knowing how to say certain names of towns, ours being mainly indian and french influenced. Mackinac (MACK-UH-naw), Muskegon (muh-SKEY-gun[not too heavy on the emphasis]), Interlochen (inn-er-LOC-kin), Sault Sainte Marie (Soo Saint Marie), Charlevoix (char-LUH-voy), Alpena (al-pea-NUH), Ishpeming (ish-PUH-ming)...How would you say Traverse City? Here we call it as all one word Travercity...leaving out the se... and the a like in apple. I have heard people say it as traverse like you traverse a mountain or river (truh-verse), or they put heavy emphasis on the a tr'UH'verse creating a syllable or added emphasis. It is Traverse-Trav-er-City. I am not sure if it is just laziness...maybe? Who knows...if it is said that way by the locals, it must be right... after all they ARE the ones who live there, they ought to know.

Last edited by Maygen on Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

My husband was born in Maryland, we went to visit his relatives last year and sometimes I about laughed. Balmer...and said so fast you were saying huh? they lived in Carrol County... which they pronounce as Carl Canny. I about died with laughter on that one. I was told that Carrol County too had it's own dialect different from those living nearer to Baltimore. My husband's Uncle made reference to the fact that his wife was from the next canny over, and when he met her she talked a little funny. But, what I found shocking was that his uncle had never heard of a two track. I mean I had seen several while there... I was decribing our house we bought to him and told him our driveway was a long two track into the woods, and he said 'wait I don't mean to interupt, but what's that you say'. I thought he didn't hear me (his hearing wasn't too well), so I repeated it. He had no idea what it meant. I asked what they called them there in carlcanny (said in all one word...lol), he told me he didn't 'rightly think we (them) have a name for them'. He had me repeat it several times until he said it the way I did. I figure he was going to go to the coffee shop and tell the guys that they finally had a name for them there dirt ...'two-tracks'. By the way a two track is a road or long driveway that had two paths where tires have worn away the grass but the grass still grows up in the center portion of the roadway. Thinking now, he may have made reference to a trail...I told him no, a trail is something narrow you walk on or ride a horse, snowmobile, or dirt bike on...somewhere a car wouldn't fit because of the trees. It was an interesting week there. I can't remember all the words I got a chuckle out of.

I've known dozens of people who put an r warsh. Surprisingly, based on an earlier posting, one off them spent most of his formative years in Warshington State, with parents from central Georgia. All the others were from northern WV and southwestern PA.

Well I was born and raised in Texas, deep in the country, where the accents run as free as the deer! And I'd have to say the "R" comes from simple miss pronouncing, and the repeating of the word, then catching on like a wild fire spreaden through the fields. I've said "WARSH" and droped the "ing" and said "Yall" and other country slangs for as long as I can remember, and it started w/me not being able to pronounce words properly with the country accent attached..... maby picked it up from my parents, or some adult in my life.. but its still part of my communication that distinguishes I'm from the South, and proud of it!

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New here and just had to jump in on this one. My mother from the Texas Gulf Coast and my father from Deep East Texas both said 'warsh'. I hadn't read where anyone had mentioned it, but they also said 'wrench' meaning to dip in clear water to remove soap suds. My grandmother, native Texas, used this word often. They, also, all put an extra 'r' in Chicago and pronounced it 'Chi-cargo.' My sister is a middle school teacher and she says it's like fingernails on chalk board (anybody remember chalk boards) to here my parents throw in all these extra r's. Of course, I secretly enjoy anything that bothers my sister.